 Okay, here we are So hi everyone welcome to code pinks weekly webinar what the F is going on in Latin America This is 20 minutes of hot news out of the Americas every Wednesday 12 p.m. Eastern and Today, I'm really pleased and excited and honored to have my friend fellow activist and compatriot Dan Kovalec join us Dan is Teaches international human rights at the University of Pittsburgh and also many of you listening may also know He's the author of a number of books, but relevant to today's conversation He is the author of the plot to attack Iran how the CIA and the deep state have Have conspired to vilify Iran and then your other book Yeah, I've read both of them by the way The plot to overthrow Venezuela how the US is orchestrating a coup for oil and so Dan How fun to have you with us for this very very probable conversation Thanks. I was in Venezuela when the Iranian general was assassinated and Yeah, it was pretty shocking For the entire world and I'm happy to say there are no missiles flying between continents as we speak but So maybe we could Take this conversation Maybe give a little bit of history of the first US coup against Iran 1953 we can talk about the similarities of that coup and what's been happening in Venezuela the last 20 years and Then maybe how this whole global vision of the United States is is affecting these two countries and not just them but those two as of For this for the sake of this conversation The other thing I'd kind of like to throw in the mix that and I'm assuming you saw it was this really crazy article in New York Post over the weekend that Iran could potentially use Venezuela as a tool to attack the United States I don't know if you saw that but That's not and of course the president of Honduras Made the statement over the weekend as well that he is an enemy of Iran and Hezbollah so we can see how Things are overtly starting or could potentially align. So so anyway, let's um, let me have you take the conversation so If we start in 1953, this was the well, it goes back, you know, even before then we have to remember that for most of the Early part of the 20th century Iran's oil was controlled by the British through a company called the Anglo-Persian oil company but emphasis on the Anglo because Britain got nearly all the profits from Iran's oil at the time By the time Mosadek Mohammed Mosadek was elected prime minister in 1951 90% of Iran was living literally in rags While the British were siphoning oil and Money out of the country and so Mohammed Mosadek a very popular politician was elected prime minister and The parliament of Iran Supported him in nationalizing British Well, what was Iranian oil but nationalizing it and taking it from the British And they were willing to pay compensation for it by the way, though that number was never settled on what that would be though at one point Mosadek who loved the Americans by the way much to his peril Agreed that Eisenhower president Eisenhower could be the arbiter of how much that compensation would be But in any case the British were furious by the nationalization Made one run at Truman before Eisenhower was elected to get him to help overthrow Mosadek and Truman refused Truman said, you know I have no interest in protecting British oil interest in Iran go home But then two things happened Churchill was elected the new prime minister he was reelected as As the prime minister of Great Britain and then president Eisenhower was elected General Eisenhower was elected president the US so Churchill made another run at Eisenhower and Through the Dulles brothers we have to remember both of which had had Interests in Anglo-Persian oil by the way John Dulles was the was Eisenhower's secretary of state Alan Was the head of the CIA their newly formed CIA They convinced Eisenhower that somehow Iran was a communist threat, which was not true And that Mosadek had to be overthrown and so they overthrew Mosadek Took a couple of years to do that But they did and they used a lot of the same tact a lot of same tactics they used in Iran They continue to use in Iran to this day and try to overthrow The current government there, but they also use them against other governments like the one in Venezuela. So what does that look like? back in the in 19 in the early 50s what they did to Iran is they They actually blockaded Iran's oil made it impossible for them to sell any oil on the world market and They intentionally racked up Iran's economy. They paid people to engage in violent street protests to undermine Mosadek's popularity And this is how they orchestrated in the end a military coup Against Mosadek again very much. We see these things happening in Venezuela. We see these things happening in Iran both countries now are under Very draconian sanctions by the United States, which are killing people. We know in Venezuela from this study I'm sure you've cited many times by Jeffrey Sachs and Mark Weiss brought that about 40,000 Venezuelans died in a one-year period due to these sanctions They expect more That was between 2017-2018 They expect more to die, you know in 2019 and into this year And many people are dying in Iran as well because people are not getting food. They're not getting medicine due to these sanctions at one point You know Trump threatened that Iran would not be able to sell one drop of oil. He has tried mightily to You know back up that threat. He hasn't quite managed to do that But that we have really damaged Iran's economy and we've damaged Venezuela's economy Even you know by stealing and let's face it the US stole a sit-go of Venezuela's American based oil company And their largest cash source of cash revenue the US stolen from them. Well, it's been really the whole Movement against Venezuela has really been about reappropriating assets financial aspects and natural resource assets and they're doing it short of a military It looks a lot like Iran in the early fifties I mean where you know Venezuela under Chavez Nationalized Venezuela's oil from companies like Exxon mobile those companies want that oil back and you know what? John Bolton was national security advisor, you know He openly started meeting with Exxon and other companies and divvying up Venezuela's oil before they even had it back you know, so It's pretty naked Fat imperial theft That's happening You know the latest move I saw today was that Trump is imposing sanctions Not just against the Maduro government, but now against sectors of the opposition Yes, those opposition people who were elected to the National Assembly on the 5th of January, correct Right because they voted out the US's puppet Wang Guaido as the head of the National Assembly His being the head of the National Assembly was the only fig leaf the US had for justifying Recognizing him as president. Even that was not real. You know, that was not constitutional But it was at least a fig leaf, right? It gave some Faces for saying, uh, you know that that the US could recognize him now. There's no fig leaf, you know, so Uh, the Trump, well, it's also an attempt. Don't you think it's also an attempt to prevent moderate more pragmatic opposition members from Creating dialogue and perhaps a peaceful solution between the elected government Yeah, it was an overt attempt to prevent that from happening Yeah, and we know that the US has been doing that for some time. We know that for example Right before the 2018 18 is a 2018 reelection of Nicholas Maduro Uh, the opposition and the government were just about to sign a comprehensive agreement in Santo Domingo and literally, uh I believe it was Mike Pence who called and told the opposition don't sign They didn't want peace in Venezuela. They didn't want moderate opposition Meanwhile, there was a moderate opposition candidate running against Maduro. Henry Falcone from the business community Who is a conservative, but he's not a radical Conservative, I would say he's part of the loyal opposition. You know, he's not willing to Burn Venezuela to the ground to get power as some of these people He was actually threatened to be sanctioned. Wasn't he for running? Yeah, yeah, Trump threatened to sanction him if he ran for president against Maduro because again Two things they felt threatened by one having a moderate opposition person in power Who again? Might not carry out all of the us's Wishes in Venezuela, but also they wanted to totally delegitimize the election If Maduro ran unopposed, of course, they could say, oh, you know, this is democracy You know soviet style or Hussein, you know Saddam Hussein style or something To have a candidate actually run against him and lose Was not what the us wanted. So yes, they threatened to sanction Um him and by the way his economic advisor Francisco I think Rodriguez is out right here He has come out against us sanctions on Venezuelan he has said that they could permanently destroy Venezuela's economy And again, that is an inconvenient statement By him and many members of the opposition of force again the loyal opposition Are opposed to sanctions because they know it's wrecking Their country and again possibly irreparably And they don't want to see that, you know, it's the people the real radical Right wing who don't care about that because they can always live in Miami or whatever And that already do Yeah, and they already do and that's who the us is aligning with Are those radical sectors of the opposition? In both countries In both the best in the class in both countries I wonder if we could talk a little bit about the the actual Working relationship between Iran and Venezuela. They've been trade partners for many years. This is nothing new And so nothing for us civilians to be fearful of this is a A south global south to south trading relationship that's that has existed for many years and it It stemmed from from then hugo president hugo chavez's vision of of a multilateral trade situation Particularly the global south, but for the planet in general, which is completely Antithetical to this unilateral vision That the united states has been promoting for I would argue for at least 40 years yes, so Iran and Venezuela are very close allies, which makes a lot of sense again. Both are very important oil producers Um Both have been under the gun of the united states for a long time Both are members of the non-aligned movement By the way, and in fact, uh, Venezuela and Iran over the years have Essentially rotated as the heads of the non-aligned movement chavez or that was the head for a while was the president of the non-aligned movement uh, I believe opera denny jad was um, and then maduro was and then um the current, uh, uh, prime minister of Iran it was I don't Honestly, they just had elections and I forget who's ahead of it now, but point is they've been very important Uh actors in the non-aligned movement, which is goes back to the 1960s, which was a movement of bocy third world countries um, who wanted to get out of Uh, not only western hegemony but also Wanted some independence from the soviet union and china as well So iran and venezuela have this natural kindred relationship and iran has been trying to help venezuela through this period Particularly by helping get it medicine for example In other resources that it can't get due to these sanctions now of course now that iran's under tighter sanctions That's going to be harder for them to do but iran has learned over Uh, the 40 years of its revolution Which has meant 40 years of sanctions Um to become largely self-sufficient, you know, they make almost everything they use And they help venezuela make that adjustment and to become more Uh independent as well, so um, there's a lot of of Kindred feelings between those two countries and it's interesting of course because iran's an interesting country the government's an interesting Amalgam of things because of course It is islamic, you know, we know that it's it's a theocracy though. It does have democratic aspects A democratically elected parliament a democratically elected president. I'm a spoke. I said prime minister. It's a president Um, but ultimately you have the ayatollah who is the supreme leader um So you have this uh theocratic government, but you also have socialist aspects of that system As well, so it's a bit of an amalgam and it seems like iran and venezuela are able to Kind of get over what seem to be some natural differences, uh in african Well, let me um, I know, you know, you and I have done a lot of solidarity work in venezuela and and of course their Solidarity work with iran intersects quite often for both of us and um You mentioned uh pharmaceuticals and developing more domestic the iranians helping the venezuelans Develop more domestic industry. I believe pharmaceuticals is one of the projects the iranians are helping with And I would also like to just share with the audience and you too I guess you know, I was in venezuela for two weeks the end of december I went for the holidays and you and I haven't talked since I came back actually, but um I have to say the holiday season in venezuela was one of the most vibrant socially and economically that I've seen in In a number of years and I think you would have been very pleased to have been there to see it Um There is more and more food products being produced domestically and that was very clear in the stores earlier in 2019 as well, but really very over for the holidays and this introduction And really overt use of their cryptocurrency for holiday purchasing the petro and the iranians are Big supporters of cryptocurrency as well, correct Yes, yes, indeed. And I I do want to you know, also, you know, just chime in that. Yeah, it looks like things in venezuela are improving The oil production is up the highest. It's been in years Um, its economy expect is expected to grow this year. So things are really moving It seems forward, which of course was making the us much more desperate Um, and and so the us, you know wants to hurt iran uh, not just To hurt iran but also to prevent them from helping Of course, uh, venezuela and you see that that the us is trying to interfere in this sort of, uh, third world solidarity Trying to interrupt cuba's medical missions throughout the world, for example, which really threaten us in germany. So Um, again, yeah, things are looking up in venezuela And so expect more trouble from the united states So, dan, you've been so gracious to give us 20 minutes of your time this this afternoon. Is there anything in that we Should specifically mention before I let you go. I should also ask to see if we have a few questions Oh Is there anything that we should emphasize? Well, I mean, I think the main thing is that we need to be vigilant We need to continue to support venezuela continue to support iran continue to support cuba nicaragua, bolivia Uh, in resisting us aggression. I mean, that's really our duty. I think as americans um Both of us have been to venezuela Have seen the process there have seen that it is Not this dictatorship. We've been led to believe it is I've I've been in iran once in 2017. I mean, that's an amazing country. It's not perfect By the way, neither is our country You know, but they tried To make strides in terms of women's rights in terms of other rights Let's say, you know comparing apples to apples. I'd rather live in tehran than in saudi arabia, for example, which the us Which we never discuss. Yeah, we never discuss that candidly regarding foreign policy You know, there's one thing I'm just looking at my notes um Looking at something that we that you brought up Early on in our conversation and that was about, uh, the eisenhower administration and this was in the early fifties um Not agreeing or not setting Uh a price for iranian oil. I don't know exactly what you said, but it made me think of what Happened with the cuban sugar in the early fifties. Um with the same administration and when the cubans had nationalized, uh Business us businesses and it offered to pay fair market price for those businesses and would sell Cuban sugar to raise that money and then the u.s. Government said you can't sell cuban sugar in the united states any longer So is it the same sort of thing that they did to the iranian oil in the in the same era within the same years? Yeah, well very similar. Yeah in the case of yeah, iran, they just they literally britain set up a naval blockade uh In the persian gulf literally did not allow ron to to sell any oil Which also showed important thing by the way, which i think we could probably conclude on A lot of times people think that these wars against venezuela and iran are for access to oil But it showed for example during the blockade of iran. We didn't need their oil, right? We don't need oil now the us exports oil and natural gas now We're a net exporter fossil fuels. We don't need access to it. The us wants control over it One because it's important geopolitically and two they want control so their company's profit from it And so it's not about access. It's about control, which is a point. Noam Chomsky has made time to get It's about control of the oil and is it about control the oil to control the global currency and how the global currency remain the us petrodollar Yeah, well, that's that's part of as well to be able to control the pricing all that right And the us is afraid if they have, you know, frankly competitors It really is kind of it's it's like an old style mafia mentality You know, right you go and you knock out the business owner. There's this little shopkeeper, right? Your tribute, right? Exactly it just on a global scale. Yeah Controls the world And but if there's one little guy out there Who's not paying tribute? He's got to be knocked out. It sets a bad example. I mean, that's what this is about Yeah, yeah Yeah, the total the total um us financial and corporate Yeah control the unilateral control Of the global currency and global trade and that is precisely what iran and venezuela Um Have sought an alternative for for many many years. So, okay, dan. I want to thank you again for joining us really great talking to you this afternoon and So folks, you can join us next wednesday 12 p.m. Eastern For another 20 minutes of hot news out of latin america on code pinks what the f is going on in latin america Thanks again, dan. Really appreciate your time. Good to talk to you. Uh-huh. Bye. Bye. Bye